Cam jansen and the wedding cake mystery by adler david a

Her friends Eric, Danny, and Beth were in thebackseat.. Hello!” a young woman in a long red dress said to Eric, Beth, andDanny.. Jansen said to Lucy Lane and Ken the baker.When they were

“I baked all week,” Ken said He sadly shook his head “The wedding is in threehours I don’t have time to bake all those desserts again.”

Mr Jansen looked at the many trays of cookies and cakes on the tables “Youcould take the cakes you gave us to the wedding.”

Ken shook his head

“Thank you, but they wouldn’t be nearly enough,” Ken said “And what aboutthe wedding cake? The bride and groom wanted a tall, beautiful wedding cake,and that’s what I baked.”

Bob turned to Cam “This is exciting,” he said “We have just three hours tofind the cake.”

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Text copyright © David Adler, 2010 Illustrations copyright © Penguin Young Readers Group, 2010 All

I Allen, Joy, ill II Title

PZ7.A2615Caw 2010 [Fic]—dc22 2009048129

—D.A.A

To Angie, a great teacher,and her awesome class!

—J.A

“Hey,” Danny said “What color is a hiccup?”

“That riddle is just silly,” Beth told him “I hope you won’t tell it at the talentshow And you always talk too fast when you tell your jokes.”

“Fast talking makes my jokes even funnier.”

Eric said, “Beth and I will juggle That’s not silly.”

“And I’ll do memory tricks,” Cam Jansen said

Mr Jansen was driving everyone to the senior center Cam was in the frontseat of the car, next to her father Her friends Eric, Danny, and Beth were in thebackseat

Cam and her father help out at the senior center This year they helped planthe Fall party and talent show Cam asked her friends to be in the show This wasEric, Danny, and Beth’s first visit to the senior center

“So, what color is a hiccup?” Danny asked again

Mr Jansen stopped the car He waited for the traffic light to change to green

“How could we know the answer to that?” Mr Jansen asked Danny “We’veheard hiccups, but we’ve never seen one.”

“It’s burple,” Danny said, and laughed “A hiccup is burple.”

The light changed to green Mr Jansen turned onto a quiet street with largeold houses and big front lawns

“It’s funny,” Danny said “A hiccup is like a burp and ‘burple’ sounds like

‘purple.’ So a hiccup is burple.”

Mr Jansen parked his car in front of the senior center He parked between ablue truck and a yellow truck Ken’s Bake Shop was printed on the side of theblue truck parked in front Mr Fancy Fix-It was printed on the side of the yellowtruck

“Look,” Cam said, and pointed “Lucy Lane is taking pictures.”

“Lucy Lane is a photographer,” Mr Jansen told Cam’s friends “She willmake lots of copies of the pictures Then Cam and I will help the seniors sendthem with holiday cards to their friends and family.”

Lucy Lane put her digital camera down She pushed her hair back and smiled

Mr Jansen, Cam and her friends, Lucy Lane, and Old Bob all went into thebuilding

“Hello! Hello!” a young woman in a long red dress said to Eric, Beth, andDanny “I’m Judy.”

Cam whispered to Eric, “She’s the director of the senior center.”

“Thank you for helping,” Judy told Mr Jansen, Cam, and her friends “Themain hall is ready The lights and microphone are set It’s almost time to start.”

Mr Jansen, Cam, and the others followed her into a large room Lots of chairswere set up in rows They all faced a small stage People were standing by tables

on the side of the room Many of the people held canes Some had walkers Onthe tables were trays of cakes, cookies, and fruit There were also pitchers ofwater and ice tea

“Please, find seats,” Judy told the seniors “You can eat later The show isabout to begin.”

Mr Jansen stood by the microphone

Cam and her friends sat in the first row of seats facing the stage Lucy Laneand a man wearing a white apron sat behind them

“This is Ken,” Lucy Lane told Cam and her friends “He baked the cakes andcookies for the party.”

Mr Jansen gave Danny the microphone Danny bowed and everyone

applauded

“Listen to this,” Danny said, really fast “I told my teacher to please notpunish me for something I didn’t do She said she wouldn’t Then I told her Ididn’t do my homework.”

a tow truck.”

This time Danny didn’t wait for people to laugh He quickly told another joke

“I dropped the hammer on a leopard Wow! That hit the spot! And I onceheard a singing cow It made beautiful moo-sic.”

Jennifer is Cam’s real first name But when people found out about her greatmemory, they started calling her “The Camera.” Soon “The Camera” becamejust “Cam.”

Cam bowed and people applauded

“Please, come up here,” Mr Jansen said to Lucy Lane and Ken the baker.When they were onstage, Lucy Lane whispered to Mr Jansen, “We can’t stayvery long We’re going to a wedding.”

Cam looked at Lucy and Ken She closed her eyes and said, “Click!”

Cam turned and faced the wall behind the stage

“What color is Lucy’s shirt?” Mr Jansen asked

Cam’s eyes were still closed She was still facing the wall

Cam said, “There are small white flowers on Lucy’s shirt In the middle ofeach flower is a red dot And there are ten buttons down the front of her shirt.”Lucy pointed to each of her buttons as she counted them out loud Cam wasright There were ten

“She’s amazing,” Ken said

Old Bob stood and called out, “What about me? You saw me outside whenLucy took my picture.”

“You have a white mustache,” Cam said with her eyes still closed

“What about my shirt?”

“Your shirt is white with green stripes You have two pens in your shirtpocket You’re wearing black pants and white sneakers.”

“Wow!” Bob said “She really does have a great memory.”

Cam opened her eyes She turned and bowed

People cheered and applauded

Lucy Lane whispered to Mr Jansen, “We really have to go.”

“Let’s thank Lucy, who took your photographs, and Ken, who baked all thecookies and cakes,” Mr Jansen said “The photos and cakes are their gifts to thecenter.”

The people in the audience applauded some more Then Lucy Lane and Kenleft the room

“Now,” Mr Jansen said into the microphone, “here are two great jugglers,Eric Shelton and Beth Kane.”

Eric and Beth walked onto the stage Each held two red rubber balls Theystood beside the microphone and bowed Then they stepped to the front of thestage several feet apart and faced each other

Eric threw a ball to Beth At the very same moment, Beth threw a ball to Eric.Just then Lucy and Ken hurried back into the room They rushed down theaisle Eric and Beth turned to look at Lucy and Ken, and the two balls bouncedoff the stage

“I can’t find my keys,” Ken told Mr Jansen “On the way out I reached into

my pocket and the keys to my truck were gone!”

“That’s terrible,” Mr Jansen said

“It’s worse than terrible,” Lucy Lane said “The wedding is in three hours, and

we have to get there Ken baked pastries, cookies, and a cake for the weddingand I’m taking pictures.”

“Hey,” Old Bob said “Who stole the keys? That’s a mystery I love

mysteries.”

“I have my car here,” Mr Jansen told Lucy and Ken “I can drive you to thewedding.”

Ken shook his head

“My cake is in the truck If I can’t get into my truck, I can’t deliver the cake.”

“I read lots of mysteries,” Bob said “And do you know what? I always solvethe mystery before the end of the book.”

“Cam Jansen doesn’t solve mysteries in a book,” Eric said “She solves realmysteries.”

Bob said, “I think someone reached into Ken’s pocket and stole his keys.”Cam went to the window and looked out

“The truck is still here,” Cam said “If someone stole the keys, he would havetaken the truck I think Ken just misplaced his keys.”

Lucy told Ken to check his pockets

Lucy and Ken left the main hall of the senior center Then they left the

building Cam stood by the window She watched Lucy and Ken walk slowlydown the front walk looking for Ken’s keys

“Let’s get back to our show,” Mr Jansen said into the microphone “Hereagain are two great jugglers, Eric Shelton and Beth Kane.”

“Hurry,” Eric whispered to Beth, “before something else happens.”

They started juggling

“Ken found his keys,” Cam called from the window “He left them in the backdoor of his truck.”

Eric caught the first ball Beth had thrown He quickly threw it back to Beth.She caught the ball Eric had thrown and quickly threw it back to him

Bob joined Cam by the window

“Look,” Bob said “Ken is opening the back of his truck.”

Eric and Beth kept juggling But many of the people in the audience were notwatching them They were waiting to hear what Cam and Bob would say next

“I baked all week,” Ken said He sadly shook his head “The wedding is in threehours I don’t have time to bake all those desserts again.”

Mr Jansen looked at the many trays of cookies and cakes on the tables “Youcould take the cakes you gave us to the wedding.”

Ken shook his head

“Thank you, but they wouldn’t be nearly enough,” Ken said “And what aboutthe wedding cake? The bride and groom wanted a tall, beautiful wedding cake,and that’s what I baked.”

Bob turned to Cam “This is exciting,” he said “We have just three hours tofind the cake.”

“Let’s go,” Danny said

Cam and her friends followed Mr Jansen past the tables with the cookies,cakes, and drinks

Danny took a few large chocolate chip cookies off a tray He put one in each

of his front and back pants pockets Then he took a large oatmeal raisin cookieand bit into it

“Ghim ghakigh thum gnow,” he whispered to Beth

“What?”

“I’m taking cookies now,” he whispered “I’m taking the good stuff beforeCam’s father gives it all to Ken for the wedding.”

“Look at all the people around Ken’s truck,” Eric said to Cam once they wereoutside “We won’t be able to get close enough to find clues.”

“I see lots of things,” Cam answered “But I don’t know who stole the cakes.”Cam and Eric walked toward the truck

“There you are,” Bob called “I found clues.”

Bob unfolded a small piece of paper

“It says ‘milk, juice, cereal, bread, and carrots,’ ” Eric said “It’s a shoppinglist.”

“Don’t read the paper! Look at the broken cookie and cookie crumbs on thepaper I found them near the truck And there are lots more Whoever stole thewedding cake and cookies opened those big doors at the back of the truck andtook them out.”

“I bet he took lots of things all at once,” Eric said “That’s why he dropped thecookies.”

A police car drove up It parked behind Mr Jansen’s car Two officers got out,

a tall woman and a not-so-tall man

“I know them,” Cam said “They came to our school They’re Officers Davisand Oppen.”

Everyone gathered around the two police officers

Ken told the officers, “I left my keys in the back door lock Later, when Ifound my keys and opened the doors, the cake, pastries, and cookies were gone.”Officer Davis said, “You shouldn’t have left your keys in the door.”

“Yes, I know,” Ken said

“Look what I found,” Bob said He showed the officers his collection of

cookie crumbs “It’s a clue.”

“Hey,” Officer Oppen said to Cam “Aren’t you the girl with the ‘click, click’memory?”

“Yes,” Cam said “I say ‘Click!’ when I want to remember something.”

“She has an amazing memory,” Eric told the police officers “She uses it tosolve mysteries I bet she’ll remember something that will help you find themissing cake and cookies.”

“I hope she remembers something soon,” Ken said

“She’s not the only smart one,” Danny told the police officers “I’m smart,too And I just saw something that I think will help I may even know where tofind the cake.”

“Someone saw the keys in the lock,” Danny said “He opened the truck and tookthe cookies, cake, and pastries Now who could have seen the keys?”

Danny looked at the two police officers He looked at the many people whohad gathered around them

“This is like school,” the old woman with curly white hair whispered “Thatboy is the teacher and he’s giving us a test.”

“I don’t think so,” Beth said “A big front window doesn’t mean someone is athief.”

“Oh, yeah?” Danny said “I bet right now someone is sitting in that house andeating wedding cake I bet he has lots of white icing all over his face and shirt.”

“Can I go with you?” Bob asked

Officer Oppen turned and looked at Bob

“I’ll be quiet,” Bob said “I just want to see how a smart police officer solves amystery.”

“Me, too,” her friend said “I’m tired I need to sit down.”

Most of the seniors went back to the center Judy, the director of the center,followed them

Officer Oppen, Danny, Beth, Mr Jansen, and Bob walked up the front path ofthe house next to the senior center They stood on the small porch Officer

Oppen rang the bell In the middle of the door was a small window Behind the

Officer Oppen waited

Cam and Eric stood in the middle of the walk Cam looked through the largefront window She watched an old woman slowly get out of a chair by the

window The woman took a cane and walked toward the front door

The woman pulled aside the curtain and looked out Then she opened thedoor

“Good morning,” the woman said to Officer Oppen

“We’re looking for a wedding cake,” Danny said “We’re looking for lots ofpastries and cookies, too.”

The woman slowly shook her head

“I’m sorry,” she said “I don’t have any cake My doctor told me not to eatanything sweet.”

“Were you home all morning?” Officer Oppen asked “Did you look outside?”

“I’m always home,” the woman answered “I sit in that big chair by the

window and read.”

“Thank you,” Officer Oppen said

The woman smiled Then she closed her door Cam looked through the largefront window She watched the old woman return to her chair

“Did you hear what she said?” Cam whispered to Eric

“Yes She said she doesn’t eat cake She also said she falls asleep in her

chair.”

“Not that,” Cam said “She said she looked out a few times so she saw Ken’s

Cam opened her eyes

“I keep thinking we’re missing something.”

Eric said, “Let’s go Officer Oppen is at the next house Maybe the neighborsaw something.”

“You’re right We can’t,” Danny said “But Officer Oppen can He’s thepolice.”

“It’s important to cross at the corner,” Officer Oppen said, “not in the middle ofthe street.”

Officer Oppen and everyone with him walked to the end of the block Theylooked both ways to be sure no cars were coming Then they crossed the street

“We’ll start with the red brick house in the middle of the block,” Officer

Oppen said

The brick house was directly opposite Ken’s truck

“Hey, I have a question,” Danny said “It’s about wedding cake What’s thebest thing to put in one?”

Officer Oppen knocked on the door

“I also have a question,” Eric said “If someone saw the cake being stolen,why would he wait for Officer Oppen to knock on his door? Wouldn’t he call thepolice?”

“Maybe not,” Mr Jansen said “If he just saw someone take the cake fromKen’s truck, he might not have known it was being stolen.”